Youth Performance in Virtual Environments

"Youth Performance in Virtual Environments" is available in print as well as online at Taylor & Francis Online. Here's the abstract:

This article examines the changing nature of young audiences in a media-saturated society. There is a growing trend toward participation and agency in video and augmented reality games allowing players to become participant and observer, actor and avatar. Based on my work with drama for youth, my experiments with participatory performance utilizing video games, and the convergence of theories about play and performance, I analyze the evolving connections between the way children and adults experience virtual environments and games, the ways they engage with a theatrical event, and how this informs the development of theatre for young audiences.

This came out of my work on the Minecraft Summer Reading Program, and my research in a youth theatre seminar last spring. I presented a first draft at a symposium I attended at the University of Hildesheim, Germany called “Arts Meets Research: an international symposium on concepts, contexts and methods of research in Theatre for Young Audiences," and hosted in association with ITYARN and ASSITEJ International.

This is a milestone for me, and since it's made up of so many different components from my life and research, it is a real pleasure to see it all come together in this way.